After CYRUS EDWIN DALLIN (American, 1861-1944)
Chief Washakie, circa 1975
from the original plaster cast by Caproni Brothers, 1914 (Boston)
Bronze with patina
40 x 43 x 9-1/2 inches (101.6 x 109.2 x 24.1 cm)
Ed. 1/8
Signed on base: Dallin.
CYRUS EDWIN DALLIN, NA (1861-1944) A sculptor of Indian figures and portraits, Cyrus Dallin created work that showed Indians as having noble bearing, simplicity, dignity, and elaborate costumes. This was a departure from earlier colonial depictions. He was one of the first sculptors to recognize the plight of the American Indian devoting his life and art to making dramatic and heroic monuments which proclaimed the Indian point of view. Born in 1861 in a log cabin in Springville, Utah, the son of Mormon pioneers grew up near Paiute and Ute Indians -- exposure which set the course of his career. As a youngster, he modeled wolves, antelope, buffalo, and other wild animals of his surroundings. On the way, he met Crow Indians that he later used as subjects. He also studied in Paris in 1880 at the Academie Julian and was further inspired to depict western subjects when he saw Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Paris. Throughout his life he was an eloquent defender of the American Indian. His intimate knowledge of them gave his work an authenticity and a reality heretofore unknown. His personal involvement with their cause gave his statures a dramatic impact which has retained its strength through the years. The simplicity of his sculptural style with its emphasis on the essentials rather than the decorative gives Dallin's statures a special appeal to the aesthetic taste of the modern world....Chief Washakie (c. 1798 – February 20, 1900) was a renowned warrior first mentioned in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell. In 1851, at the urging of trapper Jim Bridger, Washakie led a band of Shoshones to the council meetings of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). Essentially from that time until his death, he was considered the head of the Eastern Shoshones by the representatives of the United States government.His prowess in battle, his efforts for peace, and his commitment to his people's welfare made him one of the most respected leaders in Native American history. In 1878 a U.S. army outpost located on the reservation was renamed Fort Washakie, which was the only U.S military outpost to be named after a Native American. Upon his death in 1900, he became the only known Native American to be given a full military funeral.Washakie County, Wyoming was named for him. In 2000, the state of Wyoming donated a bronze statue of Washakie to the National Statuary Hall Collection. There is also a statue of Chief Washakie in downtown Casper,Wyoming. The dining hall at the University of Wyoming is also named after him.